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PAMPHLETS 


ON 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 


vol,  2 


Volume  II 
Number  II 


NOVEMBER,  1910 


Per  Copy,  5  Cents 
Per  Tear,  50  Cents 


THE 

Gospel  of  the  Kingdom 


STUDIES  IN  SOCIAL  REFORM 

AND 

WHAT  TO  DO 


JOSIAH  STRONG.  D.D.,  Editor 

Under  the   Direction  of  a  National  Committee 


CONTENTS 

THE  CHURCH  AND  REFORM  {Editorial) 
THE  FEAST  OF  BROTHERHOOD 
ON  THE  WATCH 

THE  BETRAYAL  OF  THE  KINGDOM 

MARTYRDOM  FOR  TimjCINGDOM 

WHAT  TO  DO 

THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

THE  SOCIAL  CENTER  MOVEMENT  IN  OTHEi 
CITIES  THAN  ROCHESTER 


THE  AMERK 

BIBLE 


PUBUSHED  MONTHLY  BY 

INSTITUTE  OF  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

SE.  ASTOR  PLACE.  NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1910,  by  tks  American  Insiitute  of  Social  Service,  New  Tmk. 
Entered  as  ?eccmd-elae8  matter  at  the  Post-offlee,  at  New  York,  October  21,  1908 


National  Advisory   Committee 

Studies  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom 


It  is  understood  that  the  Committee  is  not  responsible  for 
the  details  of  the  lessons  or  of  the  management,  but  is  a  general 
Advisory  Committee  representing  the  various  denominations. 

JosiAH  Strong,  D.D.,  Chairman 

John  Coleman  Adams,  D.D. 
Bishop  C.  P.  Anderson,  D.D. 
The  Rev.  Geo.  A.  Bellamy 
W.  C.  Bitting,  D.D. 
Charles  R.  Brown,  D.D. 
Francis  E.  Clark,   D.D. 
Russell  H.  Conwell,  D.D. 
Prof.  C.  P.  Fagnani,  D.D. 
Bishop  Samuel  Fallows,  D.D. 
I.  K.  Funk,  D.D. 
Mr.  Robert  H.  Gardiner 
Washington  Gladden,  D.D. 
Bishop  D.  H.  Greer,  D.D. 
Prof.  C.  R.  Henderson,  D.D. 
Bishop  Eugene  R.  Hendrix,  D.D. 


Dean  George  Hodges,  D.D, 

Ira  Landrith,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Walter  Laidlaw,  Ph.D. 

Frank  Mason  North,  D.D. 

Mr.  Wm.  B.  Patterson 

Prof,  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  D.D. 

Prof.  Graham  Taylor,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Harry  F.  Ward 

Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren,  D.D. 

Pres.  Herbert  Welch,  LL.D. 

Prof.  Herbert  L.  Willett,  D.D. 

George  U.  Wenner,  D.D. 

Prof.  W.  H.Wynn.  Ph.D..  D.D. 

M.  J.  Whitty,  Secretary 


What  are  the  FACTS? 

EVERY  IMPORTANT  PHASE  OF  PAST 
AND  PRESENT  SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL 
PROGRESS    IS    COMPREHENDED    IN 


BE   ONE  WHO   KNOWS 

— Do  not  blandly  accept  others' 
opinions.  Get  the  FACTS  from 
authentic,  reliable  sources. 


INCLUDING: 

Adulteration  of  Food.    Agriculture — xVnarch- 

ism — Its  ethical  side  and  fundamental  tendencies. 
Arbitration— Settlement  of  indastria!  disputes. 
Cliild  Labor.  Cliurcli  and  Social  Reform.  The 
Church  and  the  Worldng  >Ian.  Cities  and  Their 
Growth  in  population;  density;  death-rate;  expendi- 
ture; cost  per  capita  and  debt.  Corruption,  Munici- 
pal, and  Its  Causes.  Crime— Its  cost;  income- of 
criminals,  &c.  Education— Its  cost  per  pupil.  Em- 
ployers' Liability.  Expenditures  and  Cost  of 
Living  compared.  Free  Trade  and  Tariff  Reform. 
Finance  and  Taxation.  Gas  and  Water  Control- 
Pros  and  Cons.  Municipal  Reform.  Oc«upationsof 
the  World  Compared.  Poverty  in  the  U.  8.;  cost  of 
its  relief.  Pure  Food  Legislation.  Social  Purity. 
Socialism;  ItsGrowthin  the  World.  Suffragettes 
—Women's  Eights.  Temperance  in  all  its  aspects. 
Trades  Unions.    Wages  and  Hours  of  Labor. 


Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  Editor  of  The  Review 
"A  perfect  mine  of  information." 

New  York  Times:  "A  necessity  in  any  well-ap- 
pointed library." 

Frances  E.  Willard  ;  "The  most  complete  book  of 
reference  on  that  subject." 

Dr.  R.  S.  MacArthur  :  "  Invaluable  to  preachers  of 
Applied  Christianity." 

Gen.  William  Booth:  "  An  invaluable  contribution 
to  the  literature  of  social  science." 


THE  NEW 
ENCYCLOPEDIA 


OF 


SOCIAL  REFORM 

'W.  D.  P.  BLtSS,  Editor 


This  great  work  contains  the  latest  authoritative  statistics 
and  expert  statements  written  by  specialists  on  the  various  sub 
jects.  "It  is  absolutely  untrammeled  by  any  bias  of  purpose.' 
—Chicago  Inter  Ocean. 

We  have  made  arrangements  by  which  Study  Classes  or 
individual  members  of  Study  Classes  can  now  purchase  a  copy 
on  the  following  terms:— 

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SENT  FREE  on  Approval 

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AiWERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF  SOCIAL  SERVICE,  80  Bible  House,  Astor  Place,  N.  Y. 


WHAT  TO  DO 

We  present  a  valuable  article  on  the  Country  Church  and  Social  Service,  by  Rev.  George 
F.  Wells,  B.D.,  the  Research  Assistant  in  the  office  of  the  National  Federation  of  Churches, 
and  also  of  the  Department  of  Christian  Sociology  in  Drew  Theological  Seminary.  Mr.  Wells 
while  pastor  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Lincoln,  Vt.,  became  pastor  of  two  other 
churches  in  the  town  federated  with  his  own  and  then  united  the  two  churches  into  one 
church  of  a  denomination  on  which  they  could  agree,  though  different  from  the  denomina- 
tion of  either  of  them,  or  of  Mr.  Wells  himself.  Mr.  Wells  remained  pastor  of  this  Union 
work  for  two  years,  and  saw  the  whole  community  improved  in  many  ways,  and  the  church 
membership  nearly  doubled.  Mr.  Wells  is  still  young  and  will  be  heard  from.  An  article  by 
such  a  man  is  worth  reading. 


THE    COUNTRY    CHURCH    AND    SOCIAL    SERVICE 

Rev.  George  Frederick  Wells,  B.D. 


The  country  community  is  comparatively 
simple  and  easy  of  mastery.  It  does  not  re- 
quire a  great  man  radically  to  transform  the 
average  village  and  its  dependent  neighbor- 
hoods. The  country  minister,  above  all  others, 
is  given  the  opportunity  of  becoming  a  so- 
cial engineer.  Yet  how  often  is  he  such? 
How  much  longer  must  we  point  back  to 
Charles  Kingsley  and  John  Frederic  Ober- 
lin  as  the  greatest  workers  among  rural  com- 
munity builders? 

In  seeking  for  practical  programs  of  social 
service  which  country  churches  may  adopt, 
I  first  present  a  program  for  the  total  serv- 
ices of  such  churches. 

1.  Every  country  church  should,  first  of 
all,  secm-e  a  strong,  skilful,  and  energetic 
minister  for  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and 
the  inspiration  and  leadership  of  the  com- 
munity through  pastoral  visitation,  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  church,  and  the  executive 
direction  of  reHgious  education. 

2.  Where  country  churches  are  related  to 
other  churches  in  the  same  community,  each 
church  should  practise  some  method  of 
Christian  unity  whereby  the  comity,  coop- 
eration, federation,  or  organic  union  of  the 

Churches  shall  be  gained. 

3.  Where  authoritative  and  generally  ac- 
cepted knowledge  of  the  needy  conditions  of 
a  parish  is  lacking,  a  thorough  scientific  can- 
vas and  investigation  should  be  made. 

4.  Where  worship,  personal  devotion,  edi- 
fying religious  exercises,  and  missionary 
endeavor  are  displaced  by  pleasures  and  prac- 
tises of  evident  demoralizing  effect  a  cam- 
paign of  evangelism,  personal,  educational, 
or  revivalistic,  is  needed. 

5.  Where  the  churches,  single  or  federated, 
are  not  in  vital  and  helpful  relation  to  the 


other  social  institutions  of  the  parish  so  that 
symmetrical  development  is  realized,  an  en- 
terprise in  the  federation  of  rural  social  forces 
should  be  initiated. 

6.  In  instances  where  the  common  social 
agencies  and  institutions  of  a  community  are 
not  fulfilling  their  functions,  and  can  not  by 
direct  means  be  stimulated  to  accomplish 
them,  the  church  may  temporarily  and  in 
behalf  of  needy  classes  perform  these  func- 
tions by  so-called  institutional  agencies. 

7.  In  the  face  of  special  problems  the 
method  of  ministerial  supplementation  may 
be  used  in  securing  the  aid  of  speciahsts  to 
treat  these  conditions. 

The  statement  of  this  inclusive  program 
for  the  country  church  has  done  for  us  at 
least  one  thing.  It  shows  us  what  not  to  do. 
The  selection  of  essential  programs  is  nearly 
half  the  task.  It  is  the  country  pastor's 
privilege  to  give  his  Sunday-morning  serv- 
ices to  the  greatest  truths  of  the  Kingdom  of 
which  he  is  capable,  the  Sunday-evening 
services  to  evangelism,  or  to  the  active  in- 
terests of  his  church,  while  social  service  be- 
comes the  church's  every-day  work.  Close 
Unes  can  never  be  drawn  between  the  social 
and  spiritual  services  of  Christians.  All  min- 
istry is  Christian.  The  spiritual  problem  of 
society  is  the  social  problem  of  the  church. 
The  best  and  only  real  solution  of  social  prob- 
lems is  the  eradication  of  their  causes.  I 
have  seen  many  a  rural  problem  of  drunken- 
ness, poverty,  social  vice,  and  gambling 
solved  by  making  clean,  honest  men  and 
women  of  the  offenders.  "  Twice-born  men  " 
are  to  be  found  in  country  \illages  as  well  as 
in  the  slums  of  London.  The  large  munber 
of  organized  forms  of  social  services  which 
the  churches  of  a  community  may  exhibit 


STUDIES  IN  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  KINGDOM 


does  not  indicate  a  high  and  healthy  state  of 
social  life  in  that  community.  Neither  does 
it  indicate  a  rapid  rate  of  social  progress.  It 
usually  marks  the  reverse,  a  state  of  need — 
of  degeneracy  or  misdirection.  The  truest 
social  mission  of  the  church  for  which  spe- 
cific programs  may  be  sought  is  that  of  di- 
recting the  activities  of  Christian  people  in 
behalf  of  other  people.  There  are  surely 
countless  problems  in  country  communities 
to-day  to  which  both  pastors  and  churches 
may  well  address  themselves. 

Having  gained  a  general  idea  of  the  rela- 
tions and  motives  of  social  service  as  a  means 
whereby  the  country  minister  may,  through 
his  church,  become  the  master  of  his  com- 
munity, we  will  notice  four  leading  examples 
of  socialized  country  churches.  From  these, 
the  one  who  desires  may  catalog  more  than 
a  score  of  workable  plans  which  may  respond 
to  his  own  local  needs.  But  we  care  more  to 
make  the  strongest  possible  emphasis  upon 
the  cardinal  principles  which,  if  practised, 
promise  success  in  all  such  undertakings. 

"The  Letters  and  Memories  of  Charles 
Kingsley"  is  one  of  the  best  books  ever  writ- 
ten in  regard  to  coimtry-church  problems. 
Charles  ffingsley  will  sometime  be  given  full 
honor  as  a  country  minister.  Let  us  note  what 
he  did  in  his  first  months  in  Eversley  parish, 
England,  early  in  his  remarkable  career: 

"  New  clubs  for  the  poor,  a  shoe  club,  coal 
club,  maternal  society,  a  loan  fund,  and  lend- 
ing library  were  established  one  after  another. 
An  intelligent  young  parishioner,  who  was 
till  lately  schoolmaster,  was  sent  by  the  rec- 
tor to  Winchester  Training  College;  an  adult 
evening-school  was  held  in  the  rectory  all 
the  winter  months;  a  Sunday-school  met 
there  every  Sunday  morning  and  afternoon; 
and  weekly  cottage  lectures  were  established 
in  the  outlying  districts  for  the  old  and  feeble. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  there  was 
scarcely  a  grown-up  man  or  woman  among 
the  laboring  class  who  could  read  or  write — 
for  as  boys  and  girls  they  had  all  been  glad 
to  escape  early  to  field  work  from  the  one 
school — a  stifling  room  ten  feet  square,  where 
cobbling  shoes,  teaching,  and  caning  went  on 
together."  ("Works  of  Charles  Kingsley," 
Vol.  VII.  Letters  and  Memories.  Morris  & 
Co.,  Philadelphia,  1899,  page  98.) 

The  story  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin's 
masterly  experience  is  strikingly  similar. 
OberHn  found  the  Ban-de-la-Roche,  a  whole 
township  with  five  small  villages,  destitute 


of  schools,  roads,  manufactures,  artizans, 
and  agriculture,  as  well  as  morally  and  re- 
ligiously backward.* 

He  first  estabhshed  schools.  Then  he  built 
roads,  himself  taking  pickax  in  hand  and 
attacking  the  rugged  hills.  He  organized  a 
club  for  the  study  of  agriculture,  introduced 
new  vegetables,  investigated  soil  conditions, 
and  furnished  lectures  on  fertilizers,  drain- 
age, and  irrigation.  He  had  a  workshop 
equipped  with  turning-lathe,  carpenter's  out- 
fit, printing-press,  and  book-bindery.  He 
trained  shoemakers,  blacksmiths,  and  car- 
penters. He  provided  women  as  well  as  men 
with  productive  employment.  He  promoted 
all  this  social  work  as  a  means  of  expressing- 
his  own  religious  vitality  and  power,  and  as 
an  essential  step  in  the  successful  building  of 
a  Christian  community. 

For  the  third  example,  we  are  taken  to  the 
decadent  mountain  township  of  Lincoln,  Vt. 
Five  years  ago  three  church  societies  united 
under  one  pastor  in  what  was  called  the  Fed- 
erated Churches.  The  Ladies'  Aid  and  Good 
Templars'  Hall  was  the  parish-house.  It  was 
the  home  of  the  Grange,  of  the  Good  Temp- 
lars' Lodge,  the  Grand  Army  Post,  the  village 
library,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  church  prayer- 
meetings,  and  all  the  leading  social  entertain- 
ments and  lectures  of  the  church  and 
community.  The  Federated  Churches,  the 
schools,  and  the  Grange  were  in  active  co- 
operation. Lincoln's  First  Farmers'  Insti- 
tute, under  the  direction  of  the  State  Board 
of  Agriculture,  was  a  result  of  their  coopera- 
tion. From  the  pastor's  leadership  through 
the  same  centralized  movement,  young  men 
graduated  from  the  Dairy  School  of  the  State 
Agricultural  College,  the  public  schools  were 
stimulated  to  higher  standards,  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  and  its  baseball  team  were  organized, 
and  home-talent  plays  afforded  the  most 
wholesome  popular  entertainments  which 
the  community  had  known  in  years.  ReHg- 
ious  enterprises  were  always  predominant. 
One  year  of  the  work  saw  church  attendance 
increased  forty  per  cent.,  more  than  a  score 
of  baptisms,  church  membership  nearly 
doubled,  and  the  largest  gatherings  of  the 
people  always  those  upon  purely  rehgious 
occasions.  The  moral  forces  of  the  commu- 
nity were  radically  changed.  In  response  to 
the  growth  of  local  possibilities  two  of  the 
churches  became  one  by  organic  union,  and 


*  The  reader  is  referred  to  A.  S.  Beard's  biog- 
raphy of  Oberlin.     Pilgrim  Press,  1909. 


STUDIES  IN  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  KINGDOM 


the  two  resulting  churches  continued  to  co- 
operate in  touching  the  whole  changing  life 
of  the  1,000  people  in  the  township.  The 
community  to-day  is  a  paradise  compared  to 
former  conditions,  and  the  work,  tho  still 
under  test,  is  moving  forward. 

Social  life  and  organization  are  different 
now  from  those  in  the  days  of  Oberlin  and 
Kingsley.  Social  conditions  with  which 
country  churches  have  to  deal  differ  in  the 
various  parts  of  the  United  States.  For  this 
reason  our  fourth  illustration  is  an  instance 
from  the  Middle  West. 

The  Rev.  Charles  S.  Lyles  is  pastor  of  a 
country  church  in  the  farming  community 
of  Lovington,  111.  The  township  has  about 
1,400  people.  In  two  years  he  brought  his 
Sunday-school  from  an  enrolment  of  100  and 
an  average  attendance  of  45  to  an  enrolled 
membership  of  404  and  an  average  attend- 
ance of  216.  The  pastor  began  by  using  the 
stereopticon  in  the  Sunday-school  and  chm-ch 
as  a  means  of  directing  inspiring  congrega- 
tional singing,  of  illustrating  the  Sunday- 
school  lesson,  and  of  lectures  on  missions. 
It  was  made  a  special  featm-e  in  an  extensive 
program  of  concerts  and  lectures  upon  all 
phases  of  practical  agriculture,  education, 
and  community  life.  The  preparation  for  the 
lectures,  as  well  as  the  lectures  themselves, 
brought  him  into  living  touch  with  all  the 
community  leaders,  who,  catching  his  moral 
enthusiasm,  were  glad  to  cooperate  with  him 
in  promoting  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  ma- 
terial welfare  of  the  parish.  The  pastor  has 
a  boys'  club,  the  members  of  which  he  di- 
rects in  solving  various  problems  in  com- 
munity service.  Lecture  hall,  reading-room, 
dining-hall,  and  kitchen,  as  well  as  gymna- 
sium with  shower  baths  for  these  activities 
are  pro\dded  in  the  large  basement  of  the 
church.  The  lady  teachers  of  the  public 
schools  lead  the  girls  of  the  church  in  gym- 
nasium and  practical  service  classes.  Mr. 
Lyle's  church,  which  is  both  institutional  and 
cooperative,  furnishes  a  living  example  of  the 
fact  that  even  the  powerful  forces  which  oper- 
ate to-day  in  rural  life  respond  cheerfully  to 
a  powerful  leadership  in  the  country  church. 

By  way  of  summary  and  conclusion  I  wish 
to  give  several  well-considered  hints  as  to 
available  programs  of  social  service  by  coun- 
try churches. 

1.  The  bringing  of  country  churches, 
where  two  or  more  of  them  exist  in  the  same 
neighborhood,   to  a  condition  of  courteous 


cooperation  or  union  forms  a  normal  prsgram 
in  social  service.  The  conservation  of  re- 
ligious social  forces  is  certainly  a  social 
service.  It  is  well  that  so  many  parishes 
have  but  one  chiuch  each.  It  is  certainly 
not  encouraging  that  the  missionary  treas- 
uries of  the  denominations  in  the  little  State 
of  Vermont,  for  instance,  can  be  conserva- 
tively estimated  to  appropriate  $8,000  per 
year,  and  New  York  State  from  like  sources 
$25,000  per  year,  in  the  support  of  rival  in- 
terests in  church-burdened  parishes.  The 
recognition  of  this  as  a  disease  which  they 
can  only  slowly  heal  is  the  redeeming  feature. 
No  local  church  need  adopt  any  particular 
program  of  social  service  imtil  it  has  gained 
such  union  with  neighboring  churches  as 
shall  make  it  really  effective  in  behalf  of  an 
undivided  commimity. 

2.  The  country  church  may  gain  and  give 
its  constituency  education  in  the  science  and 
history  of  social  service.  The  program  in 
this  regard  may  consist  of  three  things :  these 
are  the  library,  the  study  class,  and  lectures 
by  experts  on  social  service  in  general  and 
rural  social  service  in  particular.  In  pre- 
paring for  definite  programs  of  social  serv- 
ice the  leaders  in  the  country  church  should 
especially  study  the  two  cardinal  methods  in 
the  application  of  social  service.  In  the  in- 
stitutional forms  of  work  the  church  pro- 
ceeds directly  to  organize  agencies  to  gain 
desired  results.  In  the  cooperative  forms 
of  work,  that  is,  in  the  federation  of  rural 
social  forces,  the  church  works  indirectly. 
The  church  gets  its  men  to  accomplish  the 
direct  ends  through  agencies  and  organiza- 
tions already  existing.  In  general  in  coun- 
try places  the  churches  may  much  more 
safely  and  effectively  observe  the  latter 
method.  The  highest  standard  is  reached 
when  the  great  principle  of  unity  is  observed 
and  each  fundamental  social  institution  per- 
forms the  largest  number  of  functions. 

3.  It  may  often  occur  that  the  centraHza- 
tion  of  the  pubUc  schools,  a  task  which  the 
coimtry  church  may  undertake,  at  least  in- 
directly, may  not  only  solve  the  commimity's 
educational  problem,  but  its  church  problem 
also.  Mr.  R.  R.  Bone,  in  The  Assembly  Her- 
ald of  September,  1910,  tells  how  in  Rock 
Creek,  111.,  the  various  small  schools  were 
brought  into  one  graded  school  with  a  full 
high-school  course.  This  made  the  rural 
point,  five  miles  from  the  nearest  town,  a 
desirable  place  in  which  to  live.     Its  exodus 


STUDIES  IN  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  KINGDOM 


of  families  well  able  to  support  the  church 
ceased.  It  became  possible  to  secure  a  high 
grade  of  preachers.  And  thus  the  recon- 
struction of  the  country  school,  undertaken 
by  those  who  earnestly  sought  the  solution 
of  the  problem  of  a  declining  chxu-ch,  became 
the  key  to  true  rural  progress. 

4.  The  village  problem  of  child  idleness 
may  be  solved  by  the  chxu-ch.  There  are 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  village  boys  in 
America  who,  through  idle  loafing  in  coun- 
try stores,  blacksmith  shops,  barber  shops, 
stables,  railroad  stations,  cotmtry  hotels, 
and  in  the  streets  generally,  and  with  no  ade- 
quate sense  nor  program  of  responsibiUty, 
but  living  instead  on  the  atmosphere  of  filthy 
conversation  and  associations,  develop  into 
third-rate  men,  if  not  into  the  criminal  and 
dependent  classes  of  society.  The  condition 
among  girls,  due  to  the  same  deficiencies  of 
home  life,  is  hardly  better.  There  are  too 
many  hamlets  and  country  towns  which  can 
not  boast  a  single  boy  of  eighteen  years  who 
is  not  subject  to  some  vicious  habit  which 
will  cripple  his  character  forever.  If  the 
church  could  bring  the  home  and  the  school 
life  up  to  their  normal  fimctions  this  prob- 
lem would  be  solved.  But  surely  in  this 
time  of  boys'  groups  vmder  trained  leader- 
ship, the  various  boys'  clubs,  and  especially 
of  the  Boy  Scouts  of  America,  the  difficulty 
should  speedily  disappear. 

5.  The  country  church  may  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  demoralized  rural  sports.  The  forces 
of  evil  have  taken  possession  of  too  many 
"gangs"  of  country  boys  and  young  men. 
The  profanity,  for  instance,  which  is  often 
complacently  tolerated  at  village  baseball 
games  is  entirely  without  excuse.  Neither 
is  it  excusable  that  gambhng  and  drinking 
habits  should  be  associated  with  the  most 
conunon  of  American  outdoor  games.  The 
village  preacher  and  church  should  invari- 
ably be  able  to  cooperate  with  the  village 
baseball  team  to  mutual  profit.  One  of  the 
happiest  victories  of  my  work  as  a  country 
pastor  has  been  that  of  displacing  a  disrep- 
utable gang  of  would-be  players  with  a  strong, 
clean,  and  usually  victorious  Y.  M.  C.  A.  team 
which  was  the  pride  of  our  church  and  a 
positive  help  to  the  commimity. 

6.  The  church  in  the  coimtry,  as  well  as 
in  the  city,  is  called  upon  to  undertake  the 
care  of  public  health.  It  is  true  that  rural 
health  officers  are  often  the  most  troubled 
of  public  servants.     The  close  cooperation  of 


country  ministers  with  local  physicians  and 
health  officers  is  indispensable.  The  great 
health  movements,  such  as  the  anti-tubercu- 
losis movement,  for  instance,  should  not  so 
often  be  given  special  Sundays  as  they  should 
be  provided  for  by  special  week-niglat  lec- 
tures. Addresses  and  practical  talks  in  sex 
hygiene  by  local  physicians,  carefully  ap- 
proved speciaHsts,  or  by  the  minister  himself 
should  not  be  neglected. 

7.  I  would  propose  what  might  be  called  a 
coxmtry-life  conference.  In  it  the  church, 
grange,  and  school  could  cooperate.  A  Fri- 
day afternoon  and  evening  might  be  given 
to  concerts,  exhibitions,  and  lectures  by  the 
local  schools  and  their  teachers,  and  the  dis- 
trict, county,  or  State  supervisors  of  educa- 
tion. The  church  and  the  schools  should  as- 
sist, as  on  Saturday  the  grange  might  lead 
in  a  township  field  day  with  picnic,  sports, 
and  addresses  by  the  farmers,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
and  other  organizations,  while  on  Sunday, 
the  church  day,  the  schools  and  the  grange 
could  attend  en  masse  special  religious  serA^- 
ices.  The  leaders  of  the  cooperating  de- 
nominations, Sunday-schools,  and  represen- 
tatives of  the  Federation  movement  would 
be  glad  for  so  opportune  a  hearing. 

A  conference  like  this  may  be  able  to  avail 
itself  of  a  speaker  of  national  repute.  It  cer- 
tainly would  afford  a  community  the  ade- 
quate hearing  of  many  an  issue  which  other- 
wise could  cause  no  more  than  a  passing 
ripple.  Such  a  program  may  give  to  many 
a  parish  its  incentive  to  life  and  power. 

8.  A  hint  has  already  been  given  as  to  the 
minister's  supplementary  helpers.  Through 
them  he  is  to  answer  the  question  of  complete 
community  mastery.  State  secretaries  and 
specialists  can  not  react  with  sufficient  force 
and  continuity  to  bring  the  desired  recon- 
struction. The  coimty  unit  for  expert  super- 
vision is  the  present  demand.  The  time  is  at 
hand  when  thousands  of  rural  counties  in 
America  are  to  be  manned  with,  engineers  in 
every  phase  of  betterment.  The  Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America 
in  providing  county  federations  of  churches 
has  the  clue  to  the  situation.  One  of  the 
most  necessary  programs  of  social  and  com- 
munity service  which  the  country  ministers 
of  America  can  adopt  is  that  of  special  prep- 
aration for  this  new  grasp  upon  social  forces, 
which  promises  that  the  whole  nation  shall 
soon  rise  to  its  own  upon  the  base  of  a  social- 
ized and  Christianized  rural  character. 


